Augmedix provides a hands-free “assisted reality” tool that can provide doctors with data on their patients without requiring time away from human interaction to make sure everything is recorded properly.

“Most doctors spend more than a third of their day on the computer, typing and documenting,” Shakil says. “This creates immense burnout for thousands of doctors, and it also degrades the sacred doctor-patient bond.”

The creators of Augmedix are familiar with this trend first-hand: Shakil’s co-founder Pelu Tran actually dropped out of medical school at Stanford after experiencing first-hand the inefficiencies and stressors on healthcare professionals.

While having doctors use something like Google Glass during appointments might seem like it would be distracting, in fact, surveys conducted by Augmedix found a 98% acceptance rate amongst patients. The Google Glass system allows doctors to spend less time taking notes, reducing charting time by two to three hours a day, and more time interacting directly with patients.

“We want doctors to feel rekindled and fall in love with the practice of medicine, and we want patients to feel tended to, with their doctors looking at them, asking more focused questions, and generally going much deeper,” says Shakil.

The Augmedix system is now used in about a dozen US healthcare systems, including Sutter Health, Dignity Health, Englewood, Catholic Health Initiatives, and TriHealth.

Next up: Augmedix’s “Care Assist” offering, which will provide doctors with suggestions to fill chronic care gaps they may have missed.